F*** the British

Happy Independence Day, America.

For the Houghs, the Fourth of July is day to be spent outside - sweating in red, white, and blue clothing, before an evening of lighting sparklers and watching the neighbors shoot off stockpiles of illegal fireworks.  We're not unAmerican or anything, but few could consider us 'Merca!-chanting patriots - we don't buy into the hype all that much.  Most Americans today don't seem to realize that the 4th of July really isn't Independence Day anyway:  only a handful of leaders signed off on the re-drafted Declaration in July of '76 - nearly everyone else waited until much, much later to sign it 'cause they didn't want to sign their own death warrants.

In an effort to give some meaning to the holiday, I recently tried explaining the American Revolutionary War to Alayna, but apparently my five-year-old has a hard time grasping the concepts of Taxation Without Representation and Colonial Imperialism.  Maybe next year.

Anyway, as usual, our Independence Day started off with a morning/afternoon outing to Osprey Park.  Then, once the kids woke up from naps, it was time for swimming and hanging out in the backyard before the evening's barrage of fireworks, sparklers, and preschool freakouts.

So here it is:  Independence Day, Hough-style.

Enjoy:

Arriving at Osprey Park.  Consider our kids 'pumped.'

Osprey Park of Hunter's Creek.  Sadly, their pets are still struggling in their fight for independence.

Miniature flags?  These kids are fans.

Watching some shitty country-rock band.  They were terrible.

Concession stands, crappy game booths, and free-crap-distributing vendors.  Happy Fourth of July, everybody!

A Justice League bounce house. . . which Abby has no interest in entering.

I think it'd be awesome to throw my kids down this thing. . .

Watching Alayna's progress

Back to the JLA bounce house, where Abby finally manned up.

Picking out free sunglasses from some church's booth.

Abby gets her hair 'dyed' pink. . . for $3.  I guess its a good cause, but still. . . you can buy your own can of hair coloring spray for that.

We didn't know if this was a boy or a girl dying Abby's hair.  Kris referred to it as a 'her' while speaking to Abby during the hair-coloring process, and was immediately worried she made a mistake.  What do you think it is?

Prowling for more free crap.

Touch ups

Alayna really wanted her face painted this year, so we relented and let her do it. . . 

By the early afternoon, our kids were exhausted, fuming sweatballs.

Alayna's butterfly

Getting funned out. . .

Arguably the shittiest carnival game of them all. . .

We spent nearly $8 on this stupid game, and all we had to show for it was two gummy-Nerds ropes, two pens, and two of those sticky-hand-on-a-string things, and a ghetto stuffed animal. . . all of which couldn't have cost, collectively, more than $2 to manufacture.

Heading back to the Tactical Family Transport Vehicle, after a long day in the sun. . .

Hey America, look - Kris is texting while driving.  This is against the law.

Post-Nap Time Pop Its in the driveway

Yours Truly shows Alayna - was incredibly crabby upon waking up - how to throw Pop Its

Grumps

Helping Abby detonate her Pop Its

Later on, after swimming and hanging out around the house, we went with the usual 'restaurant' method of giving the girls mix-and-match foods they seem to eat so well (a trick we learned from Mom). . .

Mini cheese pizzas, apples with peanut butter, strawberry cream cheese on graham crackers, and some veggies.  Not a BBQ, - and not very Fourth of July-ish - but hell. . . the kids ate it the crap out of it, so we'll take it.

Abby gets weird. . .

. . . as if Alayna's 'Scary Face' wasn't creepy enough without the facepaint.

Around 8pm, people started shooting off fireworks throughout Ginger Mill. . .

While we watched our neighbors shoot off very impressive pyrotechnics, we Houghs stuck to our traditional arsenal of sparklers, fountain of colored sparks, and the like. . .

The street lights prevented better firework pictures for the most part, but in person they were pretty impressive - the display we viewed tonight was just as good - if not better - than the city fireworks display we used to get back home in Clare and Farwell.  People down here try and out-do each other with illegal fireworks, and drop thousands of dollars into their displays, which last way into the night. . .

The girls were pretty spooked by all the loud noise going off over our house, so we left the garage door open and they came out once and awhile. . . we didn't want to push them.

These are from a house a few doors down the street (that's our front yard palm)

Watching fireworks in the opposite direction

- Brian